John E "Jack" Douglas

John E "Jack" Douglas

This man was born in Appleton in July 24 1917 and changed his name because the original surname sounded "too Jewish". Family does not know the original surname or if he was actually Jewish. He ended up for some time in Arizona, Texas and then died in Kentucky. He was an engineer. Anyone able to give me a lead on his family??

Re: John E "Jack" Douglas

The family knows very little. They think he was born in Appleton and probably changed his name in his twenties and when he dad found out he was very angry and they became estranged. I think the guy went to college so I imagine my friend might do well to look through a year book or two around the 1938 year or so for an Appleton high school. I would imagine that he was not an only child because as far as the family knows there was never any contact between him and his kin even after the children were born. The thought maybe the name was Rosenbaum or Rosenblatt or something like that. Any clues about who this might be?

Re: John E "Jack" Douglas

This is very unrelated, but I noticed you took the pictures and story I had of Wesley Swift. This is my husband's great grandfather and I was wondering if you were related and if so if you've got any family tree/history to share. Any help would be appreciated.

Re: John E "Jack" Douglas

A search for "John E. Douglas" on Ancestry.com shows cross-listings for John ROSENBERG, including a 1920 federal census listing in Milwaukee (at age 2), with parents John W. Rosenberg (age 25) and Olive E. Rosenberg (age 24). His birth year is reported as 1917/1918.

The cross-listings include the Social Security Death Index and Kentucky Death Index entries for John DOUGLAS (1917-1977).

By 1930, he was listed in the census in Grand Chute, Outagamie County, WI with parents John and Olive ("Oline") Rosenberg and younger siblings Warren, Ruth, and Dorothy.

Elsewhere online, there was a 1949 high school alumni listing for Wittenberg (Shawano County) WI for Olive YOUNG, Class of 1912, who is shown as "Mrs. John Rosenberg," 226 South Drew St., Appleton, WI.

An article in the Appleton Post-Crescent (24 June 1939) indicates that the city council authorized the city engineer "to hire John Rosenberg and Harry Jackson to make the preliminary survey of the proposed high-level bridge." Per one of the earlier census listings, John (Sr.) was also an engineer, so it's not entirely clear if this article is making reference to the father or the son.

All of this came from a rather quick search, so it's likely that much more information can be uncovered with the Rosenberg name in mind.

Re: John E "Jack" Douglas

I downloaded that one to my personal tree. My grandmother was Iris Carriker Putnam Badgely. She married Floyd Badgely after she was divorced from George Putnam. I get very scanty information from the family but my mom says that she thought that Floyd and Iris were friends from when they were kids. I tend to flesh my trees out because I have found information coming from obscure locations and as a general rule my family knows little to nothing about the relativ